Every year after statewide elections Republican leaders at the Capitol say there are no plans to engage in the partisan culture wars that have become more and more popular in the nation’s polarized political system.
Instead, they say, they plan to focus on “kitchen table issues” such as tax cuts, economic development and crime reduction.
And then it’s like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown as he runs to kick it — the promise of a quiet session dominated by “kitchen table issues” gets snatched away at the last minute.
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and representatives from the offices of Gov. Brian Kemp and House Speaker Jon Burns say their priority lists have not changed, and they don’t include culture war issues.
But any of the 236 legislators can file a bill on any topic. In the Senate, staff in the Senate majority leader’s and lieutenant governor’s offices say their bosses are not taking a heavy-handed approach to leadership.
“There are members that come from different backgrounds and different parts of the state geographically that represent different political persuasions, (who) have a right and an obligation to represent their districts,” said Senate Majority Leader Steve Gooch, a Dahlonega Republican. “I think they feel compelled and obligated to bring forth legislative ideas that their constituents want them to address down here. And so that’s what we’ve seen.”
Jones said those lawmakers deserve to have their bills go through the legislative process.
“I’m not shutting the door on a senator bringing forth legislation to be debated,” he said.
Gooch pointed to the list of Republican caucus priorities, such as supporting Kemp’s push for income and property tax rebates, expanding welfare benefits to include low-income women once they are pregnant and increasing penalties for people who recruit minors into gangs.
But in the past few weeks, Republican senators have filed bills that would restrict how sex and gender are taught in classrooms, would block medical treatments for transgender kids, would allow residents of Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood to vote on leaving the city and would revive a running battle over “religious liberty” measures.
“They always say they’re not going to introduce these (hot-button) issues, but they always do,” said Senate Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Elena Parent of Atlanta. “Democrats are filing bills that will help Georgians.”
Democrats aren’t immune from filing legislation on polarizing issues, though their bills hardly ever get a committee hearing, let alone a vote. Democrats have filed bills in both chambers that would legalize abortion in nearly all instances, impose universal background checks and a three-day waiting period for people who purchase guns and require the state to pay women who wanted to get an abortion but couldn’t because of Georgia’s restrictive law.
Megan Gordan-Kane, a lobbyist with the Feminist Women’s Health Center, said bills such as the ones addressing transgender children are part of a nationwide effort from Republicans to file legislation that polls well with their base of supporters.
“They said that we weren’t going to be fighting culture wars, but that clearly doesn’t apply to trans kids and their families, which the Senate is coming at at full speed to take away their access to gender-affirming health care or talk to other trusted adults in their lives,” she said. “Georgia would rather do that than focus on the issues that Georgians are actually concerned with.”
State Sen. Ed Setzler, the Acworth Republican who filed the religious liberty bill, said while his legislation may get a lot of attention from his Democratic colleagues and in the press, it shouldn’t be a divisive issue. Setzler in 2019 sponsored the bill that became Georgia law banning most abortions when a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, which typically is about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many know they are pregnant.
“I think it’s the wrong premise to assume something as simple as applying a federal civil rights standard to the state and local level — that something as simple as the First Amendment is even controversial,” he said.
Senate Bill 180 would limit the state government’s ability to pass or enforce laws that conflict with religious beliefs. Critics of the legislation fear that it could empower adoption agencies and businesses who refuse to serve gay couples.
“When leaders allow misperceptions and misunderstanding to reign, crazy and bad things happen in politics,” Setzler said. “When we deal with substance and solid, proven legal standards like this, in spite of misunderstandings out there, we move forward and do the right thing.”
Gooch stressed that just because a bill has been filed or gets voted out of a committee, it doesn’t mean it will make it to the Senate floor.
“(A bill will) eventually either get through this session or it’ll be held over till next year,” Gooch said of the two-year legislative session. “And some of these bills won’t make it. There’s almost 200 bills in the Senate already. And we’re not going to hear all 200 bills.”
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